A close associate of disgraced former Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed bin Hammam has been banned from the game for life by FIFA's ethics committee.
Najeeb Chirakal was first suspended by world football's governing body in 2012 for failing to cooperate with its investigations into Bin Hammam, the Qatari who took on Sepp Blatter in the 2011 FIFA presidential race only to be thrown out of the sport a year later.
A FIFA investigation into Chirakal's activities was only completed in November but the ethics committee, chaired by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, has not taken so long to reach its verdict.
In a statement, the committee's adjudicatory chamber said: "Chirakal had been involved in several unethical payments made on behalf of a third party to various football officials between 2009 and 2011, and had failed to collaborate in various ethics proceedings."
It then cited eight different articles of the FIFA code of ethics breached by Chirakal, whose ban starts with immediate effect.
Source: PA
